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John Henry Sullivan (1816-1856)
}} Background John Henry Sullivan was the son of Major Benjamin Sullivan J.P., born in Madras, India, who was the eldest, but illegitimate, child of Benjamin Sullivan (1747-1809) who became a Judge of the Supreme Court of Madras, India. His grandfather did not publicly acknowledge his parentage of his father, but his grandfather did leave his father £1500 in his will to buy a commission as Major in the British Army "in the event of his not beng promoted to that rank previous to my death", and an extra £100 as a "friend". That Major Benjamin Sullivan was the son of Benjamin Sullivan of Madras was also stated to his family being included in Major Benjamin Sullivan's obituary and his death certificate. Major Benjamin Sullivan had first joined the British Army at the age of 17 as an Ensign, a commission that his father would have purchased for him. Over the next 14 years he was promoted up the ranks, serving in the Peninsular War from 1808 to 1814 as a Captain in the 3rd Ceylon Regiment and then the 33rd Regiment of Foot. He was to receive a Medal of Command from the Portugese Government with 11 arms radiating out from the centre for each battle in which he participated in the Peninsula War: Vimiera (Vimeiro) 21 Aug 1808; Corunna 16 Jan 1809; Buzaco (Bussaco) 27 Sep 1810; Cuidad Rodrigo 7-20 Jan 1812); Salamanca 22 Jul 1812; Vitoria 21 Jun 1813; Pyrenees 25 Jul 1813; Nivelle 10 Nov 1813; Nive 9-13 Dec 1813; Orthes (Orthez) 27 May 1814; Toulouse 10 Apr 1814. He was then promoted to a Major of the Portugese Service (of the British Army) on 25 Oct 1814. It was in Lisbon, Portugal, that John Henry Sullivan, Major Benjamin Sullivan's first child, was born in 1816. Move from Portugal to Australia Sometime after John Henry Sullivan's sister Margaret Isabella Sullivan (1824-1907) was born In Lison, Portugal in Apr 1824, Major Benjamin Sullivan took his family to England. He was on the Isle of Man in Sept 1826 when his daughters were baptised. He retired from the army and in 1828 he moved his family to New South Wales, arriving in Sydney on 6 Oct 1828 aboard the "Mary Hope". Teenage years During his teenage years, when he wasn't at school, John Henry Sullivan spent some of his time on the 2560 acre grant of land named "Thalaba" in the county of Durham, on the Williams River, 8 miles from Clarence Town, that his father received in 1828. In 1832 his father moved to Port Macquarie to become the first resident magistrate, and the farm was sold in 1833. John Henry Sullivan's schooling prior to 1832 was unknown. In 1832 he was attending the Australian College which was established in Nov 1831 in Sydney "one of the earliest collegiate schools in the colony to offer a comprehensive curriculum in post-elementary school subjects". In Oct 1832 "second prize of Books for an Essay 'on the marks of wisdom and power in the works of nature and the mode of tracing these as effects to one intelligent cause' was adjudged to John Henry Sullivan." 1st Marriage, 1839 to 1845 On 12 Jan 1839, at Sydney, John Henry Sullivan married Caroline Falconer, who was visiting Sydney from Calcutta, India with her sister Mary's family. Her brother-in-law, Capt. Alexander Davidson, was visiting Sydney on 2 years furlough from The East India Army. In the marriage announcements Caroline was described as the "third daughter of the late Alex. Falconer, Esq., of Belnabarry, Bengal", India. John Henry Sullivan was decribed as of the MacLeay River, and as a Commissioner of Crown Lands, a position that he was appointed to in Feb 1837. John Henry Sullivan had previously taken up a selection of land that he called 'Calatina' on the south side of the MacLeay River a few miles above today's Kempsey. He ran the farm in partnership with his younger brother Benjamin Robert Sullivan (1817-1892). This partnership was disolved on 20 Sep 1839 after which time John Henry Sullivan operated the farm on his own. John Henry Sullivan was assigned convicts to work on his farm, just like his father had been before him. For example it is known that in 1835 John Henry Sullivan was assigned the labour of Lewsyn yr Heliwr (Lewis the Haulier, or Lewis Lewis) from Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, who was still with him in the 1837 muster, and remained assigned to him until Lewis received his ticket of leave on 8 Oct 1840. After the birth of their first 2 children at 'Calatina' in 1840 & 1842, John Henry Sullivan moved his family to Melbourne where his wife's sister Mary was living with her family, having themselves arrived there from India on 30 Apr 1843. John Henry Sullivan, his wife, 2 children and a servant sailed from Sydney on the "Isabella" for Port Phillip on 14 Mar 1844. Tragedy was to strick the family on 11 Apr 1845 when his wife Caroline died in childbirth at her sister Mary's residence at Yarra Bend, South Yarra, Melbourne. The baby died the next day. 2nd marriage, 1845 to 1856 After arriving in Melbourne in 1844, John Henry Sullivan set himself up in business as a wine merchant. Being left a widower with 2 small children with the death of his first wife on 11 Apr 1845, he looked to remarry. In 1845 he married his second wife Anna Gavin. In Jan 1847 he moved his "Wine and Spirit Merchant" business from Swanston Street to Elizabeth Street. He sold not just wine and other forms of alcohol, but also "tobacco, flour, tea, sugar, and the necessary supplies required by Settlers". In Apr 1848 John Henry Sullivan, wine merchant, was made bankrupt. He recovered from the bankrupcy, being discharged in Jul 1848, and continued to trade as a wine merchant in Elizabeth Street. In Sep 1849 he advertised for sale his "GOOD-WILL, LICENSE, &c, of a capital Hotel in Melbourne" at Elizabeth Street. He continued to trade as a wine merchant, however, and continued to hold a lease on premises in Elizabeth Street. He acquired a second lease on premises in Flinders Lane that he used as a counting house, as his stores, and where he manufactured ginger wine. In Jan 1851 he exhibited in the Industrial Society Exhibition 6 bottles of ginger wine that he was manufacturing at his Flinders Lane premises. Prior to 4 Nov 1851 John Henry Sullivan assigned his leased premises at Flinders Lane and all the stock and fittings it contained, to his brother-in-law Alexander Davidson. On 11 Nov 1851 Alexander Davidson put up for auction, without reserve, the whole of the stock-in-trade of alcoholic beverages including 280 gallons of ginger wine, all the equipment for manufacturing the ginger wine, the counting house fittings, and "sundries too numerous to particularise". In what became a family feud, 2 days later, on 13 Nov 1851, John Henry Sullivan, described as a wine merchant, took possession of the premises in Flinders Lane by force and began removing property from the building. His brother-in-law Alexander Davidson succeeded in obtaining entrance to the building and then sent a message to a friend, Mr Lamb, to come to his assistance, and for Mr Lamb to bring fire-arms with him to resist any attempt of John Henry Sullivan to take the premises from him. Mr Lamb brought a pistol with him, and brought a friend with him who came with a double-barrelled gun. John Henry Sullivan claimed he had been assaulted when the fire-arms were drawn on him. In the court case that followed the assault was not proved, but Mr Lamb was never-the-less bound over to keep the peace to the sum of £200. Prior to 4 Nov 1851 John Henry Sullivan had ceased trading as a wine merchant. The lease on the premises he had been using in Elizabeth Street, however, continued, and on 24 May 1852 there was an auction of the household furniture that he had stored there "under a warrant of distress for rent". The reason why John Henry Sullivan had ceased trading as a wine merchant, had assigned the premises and all the stock and fittings that he had owned at Flinders Lane to his brother-in-law Alexander Davidson, and had placed his household furniture in storage in his stores in Elizabeth Street, is that he was taking his family to the goldfields to prospect for gold. In 1852 his son Kenneth Snodgrass Sullivan died on the goldfields at Mount Alexander (Castlemaine). His next child, Richard Gavin Wilton Snodgrass Sullivan was born on the Bendigo goldfields in 1854. John Henry Sullivan died on the Bendigo goldfields on 2 Jan 1856.